A banknote handling device such as an automated teller machine (ATM) includes a banknote storage device that stores and accumulates loaded banknotes in order to collect the banknotes finally from the banknote handling device. As this type of banknote storage device, a configuration in which a bladed wheel disposed in a loading path of banknotes is rotated to load the banknotes into a storage so that the banknotes are stacked and stored in the storage is known.
Patent Literature 1: Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2004-107079
Patent Literature 2: Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2008-308324
Patent Literature 3: Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2012-64198
In the above-described banknote storage device, since banknotes loaded into the storage are stacked by gravity, the banknotes stored in the storage are not appropriately accumulated due to the charged banknotes repelling each other in the storage, for example.
Therefore, such a configuration as illustrated in FIG. 8 is proposed in order to appropriately accumulate the banknotes stored in the storage. FIG. 8 is a plan view for describing a banknote storage device according to a related art of the present application.
As illustrated in FIG. 8, a banknote storage device 111 according to the related art includes a housing member 112, a storage 113, and a push-in mechanism 118. The housing member 112 has a bottom plate 112a in which a loading region 116 in which banknotes 102 are loaded is formed. The storage 113 is disposed to be adjacent to the housing member 112 in a horizontal direction. Moreover, the storage 113 has a storage opening 113b which is formed in a side wall 113a adjacent to the loading region 116 and in which the banknotes 102 are pushed, and the banknotes 102 are stored from the storage opening 113b. The push-in mechanism 118 includes a push-in member 131 that pushes the banknotes 102 loaded to the loading region 116 into the storage 113 and a crosslink member 132 that drives the push-in member 131. Moreover, the storage 113 includes a pressing member 125 that presses the banknotes 102 toward the side wall 113a and a coil spring 126 that biases the pressing member 125 in order to accumulate the banknotes stored therein.
In the banknote storage device 111 having such a configuration, the banknotes 102 pushed in from the storage opening 113b by the push-in member 131 are sandwiched between the push-in member 131 and the pressing member 125. The banknotes 102 are pressed toward the side wall 113a by the pressing member 125 whereby the banknotes 102 are appropriately accumulated in the storage 113.
However, in the above-described banknote storage device 111, the banknotes 102 loaded to the loading region 116 are stored in the storage 113 by the push-in mechanism 118 one by one. Due to this, it takes a considerable amount of processing time to store the banknotes 102 loaded to the loading region 116 of the housing member 112 in the storage 113.